no arrests were made. Freedom of Information Request In 2005, a former schoolfriend of Jean's (and a neighbour and family friend of the Townsends), Reg Hargrave, applied for access to the police case files – now held by the UK National Archives at the Public Record Office in Kew – under the Freedom of Information Act. The request was refused and – following an approach to the Information Commissioner – an appeal was heard (in part in closed session) by an Information Tribunal in November 2007. In its ruling the Tribunal dismissed the appeal and upheld an earlier decision to withhold the files from public inspection until 2031. While in closed session the Tribunal was addressed by a senior Metropolitan Police detective, who presented information which the Tribunal later described in its ruling as "specific" to the Townsend case. This led them to conclude that whilst there was nothing to suggest that the identification of the murderer (either through a confession, new information or advances in forensic science) was imminent, such a development was a possibility. The Tribunal noted that a re-examination of the dead woman's clothing and other items had been undertaken in the 1990s by the Forensic Science Service. This had been done in the hope of identifying new DNA evidence, but had produced "nothing of value". The Tribunal heard that whilst the police case files were substantial, a number of items were missing. The Tribunal considered a theory – advanced by the appellant – that the killer was one Count Francesco Carlo Dalatri, an Italian nobleman of mixed English and Italian parentage, who had been living in the London area at the time of the murder. Suggestions about the Count's possible involvement seem to have originated in an interview with his former landlady, broadcast a few years earlier on John Peel's popular Home Truths programme on BBC Radio 4. In the programme it had been alleged that the Count – who was known as "Frank" to his friends – was in the habit of travelling on the London Underground late at night looking at other passengers. This had reportedly attracted the attention of the police on at least one occasion. It was further alleged that the Count had unexpectedly and hurriedly left England for Italy very shortly after the murder, never to return (it was believed that he subsequently lived in Italy until his death in 1987).